CHRIS HAYES, HOST: As dawn broke on Washington, D.C., 50 years ago today, no one knew what to expect. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been up most of the night in his room at the Willard Hotel, writing and rewriting the speech he was to give that day -- though the most sublime passage would never appear on that page.

The earliest press reports that morning suggested that only about 25,000 people would show up. Organizers of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom were nervous. Putting out fires, working behind the scenes to keep the collision behind the march intact and preparing to channel the sea of humanity that they hoped to call forth.

And then the buses and the trains came, and the people came with them by the thousands. And by that afternoon, more than 200,000 people -- black and white -- spread out before the shadow of the great emancipator, disciplined and exuding the spirit of solidarity.

They listened to speakers one by one who called the nation to meet the demands that justice placed upon it, and about 2:40 in the afternoon, the last speaker rose to the lectern. Some fretted the TV cameras would be already gone by the time the reverend spoke having already left to process film for the evening`s news. But the crowd leaned forward and this is what they heard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., CIVIL RIGHTS ICON: I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

(APPLAUSE)

Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beckoning light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.

One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the comers of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land.

In a sense we`ve come to our nation`s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

(APPLAUSE)

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we`ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

(APPLAUSE)

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God`s children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro`s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

1963 is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

(APPLAUSE)

And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

(APPLAUSE)

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

(APPLAUSE)

And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

(APPLAUSE)

We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro`s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only."

(APPLAUSE)

We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

(APPLAUSE)

No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."1

(APPLAUSE)

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

(APPLAUSE)

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

(APPLAUSE)

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

(APPLAUSE)

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

(APPLAUSE)

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God`s children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country `tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim`s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God`s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

And joining tonight on this special edition of ALL IN: Martin Luther King III, human rights activist and the eldest of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat representing the District of Columbia, she was an organizer of the 1963 march. And Reverend Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network, my colleague, host of MSNBC`s "POLITICS NATION".

When you listen to that speech in its entirety, what thing that comes through is the rhetorical tight rope that your father was walking. He was speaking to the crowd. But he was also -- knew that he had one of the largest audiences he was probably going to have. Who was the audience to that speech?

MARTIN LUTHER KING III, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: I think the audience has become different than who it was. That day the audience was not just the crowd, but it was Congress. It was the president.

It really was a nation. Now it`s become the world in a real sense. Even though it was a dream he shared for this nation.

HAYES: There`s a repeated return to a very insistent tone, that if you think we`re going to blow off steam and go away, if you think that you kind of slough us off -- and he manages to do this in a way that it is very deftly graceful and gracious and openhearted. But what comes through is, we are not moving.

SHARPTON: Well, you know, one of the things that you have to think about, when you hear the speech in its entirety is that he laid out some of the same issues that Martin III and I are dealing with today and dealt with Saturday. And the congresswoman deals with all the time.

He mentioned at least twice police brutality. He talked about economic inequality. He talked about blacks not being able to vote in the South, not feeling we had a reason to vote in the north.

If he were to make that speech today and as Martin Luther King, they would call it the grievance industry because he laid out some of the same grievances that we are accused of exacerbating today. It`s amazing to hear him raise issues that we get condemned for raising.

HAYES: And particularly the passage, the very striking passage on the promissory note, which is that we have been given a bad check marked "insufficient funds", which got a huge laugh from the crowd of recognition.

REP. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D-C), 1963 MARCH ORGANIZER: But, by the time he got there, he had laid the predicate. The speech was brilliant. Leave aside its oratoricals.

He starts out, before you get to the promissory note. He gives you the historical basis for it, the emancipation proclamation. And by the time you get to modern times, that has become a real promissory note.

When you consider this man -- the speech every -- virtually every other line is a metaphor for the audience. There was -- what the reverend said is very important to the note. How do you speak to the audiences that Martin indicated, when you know that most of the people there were black, a third were white. You`re speaking to the larger American public, to the political establishment.

HAYES: "The Washington Post" editorial page for instance.

NORTON: He was speaking to us, the young militants. He`s talked about the marvelous militancy. He managed to admonish us at the same time. Don`t go overboard.

Here was the penultimate skill of an orator who can speak to several audiences at one time, and it as if he -- you would say, yes, that line was for me. And somehow else will say, and yet -- you`re right, it doesn`t read like a set of grievances. It reads like a poem. It reads like the oration of a poem.

HAYES: And it`s precisely that genius that has brought about the mini-industry of appropriating the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, because there is so much in that speech. And so much in the message, that people -- I want to play a brief sound clip. We`re going from the most sublime to the most mundane, I apologize.

But this is what 30, 40, 50 years does, which has been appropriated by the conservatives, the right, by all sorts of folks about what he actually meant. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

BILL O`REILLY, FOX NEWS: If Dr. King were alive today, I believe he would be broken hearted about what has happened to the traditional family, and not only among blacks.

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: We feel the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who would challenge us to honor the sacred charters of our liberty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that gun appreciation day honors the legacy of Dr. King. The truth is, I think Martin Luther King would agree with me, if he were alive today.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HAYES: I`m not asking you for a sort of definitive historical account of who would not be in the graces of the departed. But it is now a game in American politics to appropriate the legacy of your father for these different political lines.

KING: Actually, it is. That is good and bad. So, you know --

HAYES: How is it good?

KING: It`s good because everyone can sort of immerse themselves and say we do believe in Dr. King. Now, it`s upon others of us, must challenge them to enforce what dad wanted to happen, and not to try to say, well, Dr. King fits -- Dr. King is against affirmative action -- well, that`s just not true.

HAYES: Right.

KING: Even though he wanted to see the day when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Reality is, maybe I as an older person am judged by the content of my character. But masses of black folk, we saw that with Trayvon Martin. He was profiled and tragically lost his life.

So, masses of young black people are not looked at by the content of their character yet. We`ve got to work on that about.

NORTON: And, you know, Jesus Chris -- if you forgive the metaphor, Jesus Christ is appropriated by everybody from the far right to the Catholic Church. And that`s what happens when you become a universal figure, when what you said appeals across the board. So, in a real sense, I don`t think Martin Luther King would mind. He would make sure we clarified the way Martin is doing now.

SHARPTON: I think even Jesus, we at least let the disciples interpret. It was amazing to me, these guys and ladies on the right seem to feel they know Dr. King better than his children, better than the people that worked with him, the people that were on his team. I mean, it`s like --

HAYES: Or even better than the plain historical record.

SHARPTON: He was speaking for himself.

HAYES: The march for jobs and freedom pamphlet, OK, this is the pamphlet. And I`d like to hear you talk about this. You`re one of the organizers. We marched to regress old grievances and helped to resolve an American crisis, the crisis born of the twin evils of racism and economic deprivation. They robbed all people, Negro and white, of dignities, self-respect and freedom, their livelihoods destroyed. The Negro unemployed are thrown to the streets, driven to despair, to hatred, to crime, to violence -- all America is robbed of the contribution.

At a later point in the pamphlet, they talk about organizing the unemployed for the march. It will serve no purpose to hold a march for jobs and freedom if unemployed people are not able to come and add their voices and presence to demonstration.

There was a profound economic message of economic justice and equality.

NORTON: At first, it was going to be a march for freedom. A. Philip Randolph, you have to get contents of that word. In 1963 --

HAYES: It`s fascinating. Freedom is too errant.

NORTON: You can appropriate by the way, very easily. But if you put jobs in there, one of those who are denying African-Americans the right to a job going to do, what are those who don`t mind having what we have today twice the unemployment rate for blacks and whites. You got to face those facts.

By the way, the speech was full of facts. It was full of incontrovertible facts. And somehow he managed to do that under the guise of poetry.

HAYES: This event was an organizing event, as much as it was an event of oratory. The speech was a crowning moment of American oratory. But we think now, march on Washington. Oh, there`s going to be a march on Washington, these people are going to march on Washington.

There was no march on Washington until there was the march on Washington.

SHARPTON: I think it`s critical, the organizing that congresswoman is talking about, the organizing to bring people together is what really was the message. You`re talking about hundreds of thousands of people that never happened before. They did not know what Dr. King was going to do. You know, in hindsight now, we look back. You would think they went to the "I Have a Dream" march.

They did not know about the dream until they got to the march. They went to stand up for freedom and jobs. And once you remove the purposes, then you don`t have to deal with the issues.

HAYES: How did you -- this is a mundane question. It`s fascinating me. My father is an organizer. I grew up in a household of organizers.

There`s no -- obviously, there`s no Facebook. There`s no internet. No one had pulled this off before. I mean, 200,000 people, where are they going to use the bathroom in the mall. This was an unbelievable feat of organizing.

NORTON: It was, never had so many people gathered in any single place for a single cause. Not to mention black and white people together. Frankly, but for Bayard Rustin, I don`t think there was a human being who had enough experience you could put together and pull this off, and remember they had been mentored by A. Philip Randolph.

And think of who A. Philip Randolph was. He was the only living African-American who had organized a lasting national movement, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

There was all of the expertise there was, and there was enormous doubt everywhere, that it could be pulled off.

HAYES: And you father, of course, had been through years of working with buyers and others to build up organizing around the boycott, and build up organizing all through the south. You can`t flip a switch on and get 200 people at the Capitol.

KING: Two hundred, you mean --

HAYES: Two hundred thousand.

KING: Yes, 200 plus thousand, in fact. No, absolutely not.

But you know, it was -- it really was a coalition, but as the congresswoman stated, Bayard Rustin was critically -- it could not have been done without this huge monumental organizing effort.

HAYES: Human rights activist Martin Luther King III and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, one of the amazing organizers who made that happen. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Rev. Al Sharpton`s going to stick around. Coming up - we`ll take a look at the 10 demands of the March on Washington which included "a national minimum wage act that will give all Americans a decent standard of living." Sound familiar? And Chris Matthews joins us next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: We cannot be discouraged by a Supreme Court decision that said we don`t need this critical provision of the Voting Rights Act, because look at the states. It made it harder for African-Americans and Hispanics and students, and the elderly and the infirm and poor working folks to vote. What do you know? They showed up, stood in line for hours and voted anyway, so obviously we don`t need any kind of law. But a great democracy does not make it harder to vote than to buy an assault weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: That was former president Bill Clinton today marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the step to the Lincoln Memorial part of a nationwide commemoration. Still with me is Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network and host of MSNBC`s "Politics Nation". And joining me is my colleague Chris Matthews, host of "Hardball" on MSNBC at 7:00 p.m. This speech happened in Washington. The march happened in Washington for a reason which was Washington was where the movement wanted to see action on civil rights legislation. That was the predicate. The first demand is comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the present congress without compromise or filibuster to guarantee all Americans -- and they list different things they wanted. Kennedy had announced his intentions - his support for such an act. What was the dynamics here politically of showing up with 200,000 people in the mall?

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST OF MSNBC SHOW "HARDBALL": Well he was forking his way. I mean you get the tapes, you can get some tapes to hear the conversations. Kennedy was working his way through the Judiciary Committee in the House, so he was working - Dick Daley in Chicago, the boss - he was working him to get some of the liberal members who were being a little bit too perfect-o. They wanted to be perfectionists. They wouldn`t push the liberal -- the civil rights bill. This is the one on public accommodations and fair employment practices. This was the one that said you can go to the restrooms, you can go to the hotels, you can go to the restaurants. And this is the doors that had been closed to African-Americans especially in the South. And he was pushing that through right up `til he died. Now you could wonder whether he would he have ever gotten past (Comer) and those guys on Rules Committee, but he was doing what he could do. And then of course the shock of his assassination, and the legislative genius of the President, and of course the outside - as you`ve said so many times - the partnership between outside and inside - all came together and magically they got a bill through and the Supreme Court said yes.And that`s the other thing we keep forgetting.

HAYES: Right.

MATTHEWS: We had a liberal Supreme Court. A right wing Supreme Court might`ve stricken that down and said `Sorry. Interstate commerce is stretched too much here.` But they didn`t.

HAYES: And there`s this incredible moment that happens after the March and after the speech in which a bunch of the folks who had just spoken go over to the White House, right? And this is - this is John Lewis saying after the March on Washington was over, President Kennedy had invited us back down to the White House. He stood in the door of the Oval Office, he greeted each one of us. He was like a beaming proud father, he was so pleased, so happy that everything had gone well. They were sweating it in the White House. Because if this didn`t go well, they were ...

SHARPTON: Well it had never happened before, so they didn`t know if violence was going to break out, they didn`t know what was going to happen, and I think that the President invited them over because he was relieved and congratulated them for making their point which he had in many ways associated, therefore putting a lot of political capital behind.

But the other thing I think that is very important is the reason the demonstration was in Washington. It was that they wanted the federal government to supersede the state laws. They were fighting states. Notice King`s words `governors` lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification.` They were nullifying federal law in opposing state law over federal law. That`s why they wanted a bill from Washington - to protect them from Alabama and Mississippi, et cetera.

HAYES: One of the things that happens in history, right, is that when we look back, everyone seems like they`re all on the same page. But at the time of course it`s incredibly contentious, and there`s tons of conflict. You`re talking about ...

MATTHEWS: All Kennedy`s pals in the South were segregationists. His best friend was George Smathers, his best friend was a segregationist. Richard Russell - the beloved Richard Russell. The Russell Building is named after the guy - an out and out segregationist. The great anti-war hero Fulbright, total segregationist. Twenty-two southern democrats. The Republican party, a great irony I talked about tonight - only two Republican senators voted against Voting Rights - John Tower of Texas and Strom who was always a secret Dixiecrat anyway.

HAYES: (Inaudible) over recently.

MATTHEWS: He was a (inaudible) Dixiecrat ...

HAYES: There was also - there was also conflict and contention inside the movement. John Lewis shows up with a speech in which he says he`s going to get up at that podium and say `we do not support the President`s civil rights legislation because it doesn`t go far enough.`

SHARPTON: But there was always conflict in the movement, the unsaid things that we haven`t mentioned through all of the last few day is black politicians couldn`t speak. Adam Clayton Powell couldn`t speak because of the politics of it.

HAYES: Yes.

SHARPTON: Adam Clayton Powell had to sit at the side and listen to the speeches.

HAYES: Why couldn`t he speak?

SHARPTON: Because no one knew what he would say.

(LAUGHTER)

SHARPTON: And there was the tension with the Kennedys and all of that. So it was a lot of - of what we hear today, we romanticized that it didn`t happen yesterday - it did. (Inaudible).

MATTHEWS: I remember Dr. King. I have to tell you. He was controversial right to the end.

HAYES: Right.

MATTHEWS: When he started pushing for jobs, and then he started pushing against the Vietnam War, I remember my brother saying `Why doesn`t he stick to his thing?`

HAYES: Right.

MATTHEWS: Because the thing meant blacks were getting killed in Vietnam.

HAYES: Up next, 50 years after, the speech of the nation`s first African-American president helped preserve the memory of the March on Washington. We`ll hear what President Obama had to say as he stood in the same spot as Dr. King.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. laid out his vision for an equal society, telling those who marched alongside him "1963 is not an end but a beginning." A half century later the nation`s first African-American president stood on those same steps.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.: Because they kept marching, America changed. Because they marched the civil rights law was passed, because they marched, a voting rights law was signed. Because they marched, doors of opportunity and education swung open so their daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebody else`s laundry. Or shining somebody else`s shoes.

Because they marched, the city councils changed and state legislatures changed, Congress changed, and yes, eventually the White House changed. Because they marched, America became more free and more fair. Not just for African-Americans, but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. For Catholics, Jews and Muslims. For gays, for Americans with disabilities. America changed for you and for me. And the entire world drew strength from that example. Whether it be young people who watched from the other side of an iron curtain and would eventually tear down that wall. Or the young people inside South Africa who would eventually end the scourge of apartheid.

Those are the victories they won with iron wills and hope in their hearts. That is the transformation that they wrought with each step of their well-worn shoes. That`s the debt that I and millions of Americans owe those maids, those laborers, those porters, those secretaries, folks who could`ve run a company maybe if they had ever had a chance. Those white students who put themselves in harm`s way even though they didn`t have to. Those Japanese Americans who recall their own internment. Those Jewish Americans who had survived the Holocaust. People who could`ve given up and given in, but kept on keeping on, knowing that weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: How can what happened 50 years ago shape what happens now? We`ll talk about the new frontier of civil rights with a special panel, including Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, who talked on Monday about the ways in which her generation has failed to carry that day forward.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HAYES: The placards at the march read "Now" on this inspiring day as we look back 50 years and see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears the message and the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We also encounter the now. What needs doing now. When we return, how the next generation of civil rights leaders are following in the footsteps of Dr. King to advance the dream. And MSNBC wants to hear from you - what is your cause? What is your vision for the future? Share it with us by going to advancingthedream.msnbc.com, or Tweeting with the hashtag #advancingthedream. We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP AGNEW, EXECTIVE DIRECTOR OF DREAM DEFENDERS: We are the forgotten generation. We are the illegals, we are the apathetic, we are the thugs, we are the generation that you locked in the basement while Movement conversations were going on upstairs. We are the generation that you chose to be afraid of our light, our darkness, who we came to love. But we are here today to join in a conversation that will shake the very foundations of this Capitol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HAYES: That was Phillip Agnew of the Dream Defenders who just ended a 31-day occupation of Florida Governor Rick Scott`s office, speaking over the weekend in Washington, D.C., nearly 50 years after the March on Washington. Joining me now is civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, founder and chairman of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute and former NAACP chair; the one and only Phillip Agnew, executive director of Dream Defenders as you just saw on there, a civil rights group; and Congresswoman Karen Bass, Democrat from California and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Ms. Evers-Williams, I have to start with you and ask about what it has been like to relive 50 years ago when that time came so fresh off the worst day in your life.

MYRLIE EVERS-WILLIAMS, WIDOW OF SLAIN CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER MEDGAR EVERS, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN OF THE MEDGAR AND MYRLIE EVERS INSTITUTE AND FORMER NAACP CHAIR: Quite honestly it`s been very difficult. But it`s been very encouraging and exciting. All in the same. Let`s go back. Medgar had been assassinated about a month before the March on Washington. One of the most tragic and unnerving experiences of my life and of my children.

He came home from a meeting holding tee-shirts that read "Jim Crow Must Go," and as he got out of the car, he was shot in the back. We heard the rifle shot. The children ran to the bathroom and tried to get into the tub. It had had been described as the safest place in the house - Medgar had taught them that. I went to the front door. The force of the bullet had pushed him forward in his car, and with the strength of whatever he was able to move himself to the door with his keys in his hand. That`s what we saw.

I must tell you at that point in time, all of the civil rights activities disappeared. It was the loss of my husband and my children`s father. We got through the first funeral. He was buried at Arlington Cemetery, and my life as a widow became front page. So, today I felt myself going through so many, so many, many emotions. That of being so proud of seeing young people step up, a younger generation step up and seize the moment and the opportunity, and having that feeling that everything is not lost, by golly, we have such a bright future here with these young people. But also, in the back of my mind there were all of these emotions.

When I saw the King children, I became very full, because I remembered Coretta Scott King as well as Dr. King and how much they wanted that family unit together. How much they have suffered, of hearing the Reverend Bernice King speak and deliver such a forceful message. It reminded me of her father and I felt this sense of pride with that, so I`ve had all of these mixed emotions.

HAYES: Phillip, when you hear that, one of the things that`s been striking to me about the Dream Defenders is how clearly and forthrightly you place yourself in the tradition of the civil rights struggle ...

PHILLIP AGNEW, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DREAM DEFENDERS: Yes.

HAYES: ... of direct action, direct non-violent action.

AGNEW: YES.HAYES: How do you feel being here and when you hear the story of Medgar Evers, knowing the line of sacrifice that has ...

AGNEW: Right.

HAYES: ... come before you?

AGNEW: You know I speak for myself and others and say we`re just humbled to be here. The Civil Rights Movement is our compass, it`s our blueprint, it`s the reason for being, it`s the reason why we`re here. And it provides us - we`re blessed with having that as a compass, a due north for us, and so it`s humbling to be here, it`s humbling to hear you speak so highly of us, and really the work that we have to do is sadly reminiscent of the work that was spoken about in the "I Have a Dream" speech.

HAYES: Well, one of the things I think that`s interesting is you did this occupation - Dream Defenders did this occupation for a special session and that a law named after Trayvon Martin and racial profiling, and the school to prison pipeline - are you reinventing direct action or are you going back and reading the old manuals?

AGNEW: Right.

HAYES: Are you learning the ...

AGNEW: Right. The way we look at it is you know we`ve got a car. And that car was built very well. But we`ve got the benefit of some GPS now ...

(LAUGHTER)

AGNEW: Anti-lock brakes, and technology we have to use at our disposal. So, no, we`re not reinventing the wheel, but we`re using everything at our disposal to make sure that our car goes fast, our car goes far and that we see victory in everything that we`re doing.

HAYES: Congresswoman, there were I think four African-American members of Congress on the day that Dr. King gave his - gave his speech.

REP. KAREN BASS, D-CALIFORNIA: Yes.

HAYES: There are north of - I guess ...

BASS: Forty-four.

HAYES: ... 44 today. How do you understand yourself as someone who is both in some senses - you inherit the tradition of outside direct action activism, and you also are within the halls of power yourself.

BASS: Exactly, well, it`s absolutely what shaped my life. I mean, I remember 50 years ago, I was nine years old, but I remembered very well. And you have two and a half generations here. Because it was the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement that absolutely shaped my life, and made me make a commitment at a very young age that I was going to devote my life to fighting for social and economic justice.

And so I spent many years before being in office being involved in direct action, studied the Civil Rights Movement and have spent a great deal of time trying to raise the next generation of activists ...

(CROSS TALK)

HAYES: So how does your - how does the psychological experience of being the person who is sitting in a politician`s office and being the person who is going to work in the politician`s office? How does that change you? How do you view that now? Is there a part of you that changes internally?

BASS: Well there is a part of my behavior maybe that changes, but not my gut, not my soul, not my principles. And so to me, I fundamentally believe the way you bring about true change is through an inside and an outside strategy.

HAYES: Yes.

BASS: And so direct action community organizing - I`ve had a ball trying to apply it in a legislative context. And there`s absolutely a way to do it. And so I think it`s very consistent. I love your GPS.

AGNEW: Yes, thank you.

HAYES: Do you think -- one of the things that I think when you go back to the actual history of this was - one of the things that they had to do with the speech was press on allies, right? I mean, there were allies in power who were sympathetic to the Movement ...

BASS: Right.

AGNEW: Right.

HAYES: ... But also (inaudible) were sympathetic to the movement but didn`t want to move too fast and lose too many Southern Dixiecrat votes, right?

EVERS-WILLIAMS: That`s true. But it`s something about momentum. When it starts, it`s difficult to slow it down, particularly if it`s for the right cause. And this is the case. And to see what is happening today - if I may turn to you and say your generation - I am just so happy and pleased to see what`s happening.

HAYES: Can you feel that momentum when it`s happening? Do you know the momentum is happening when you feel it.

AGNEW: Yes.

BASS: Yes. Absolutely you do.

AGNEW: I think all you have to do - if I can - all you have to do is look around the country, and you can see it in different pockets and there`s been a long-running question - where are the young people at? And I think a lot of young people are saying "we`re here."

BASS: Exactly.

AGNEW: We`ve been in North Carolina defending voting rights, you know? We`ve been here in Florida fighting against racial oppression, we`ve been in Ohio fighting for fair wages. And so we`re here, I mean, you can feel it, and you can see it, and I think we`re in a very interesting time.

BASS: And the skill of an organizer is to always have your pulse on your people so that you know when that is happening. But even though I sit in the House of Representatives, I think the outside pressure is absolutely critical.

HAYES: Does it bother you when you have outside pressure?

BASS: No.

(CROSS TALK)

HAYES: I feel like every policy - even the ones ...

BASS: No.

HAYES: ... in their heart of hearts are there ...

BASS: No.

HAYES: ... that there`s some party that thinks `Aw, man, you`d make my life so much easier if you ...

BASS: You`re supposed to hold me accountable. That`s why I love to have town halls.

EVERS-WILLIAMS: But one of the things that I hope for is that there will be more and more publicity on what our younger people are doing today. It`s absolutely necessary to move forward.

HAYES: And there is a lot of really exciting stuff, Dream Defenders being just one of them. Civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams, it`s a great, great honor to have you here. Phillip Agnew from Dream Defenders ...

AGNEW: Thank you.

HAYES: ... and Congresswoman Karen Bass, thank you all so much.

BASS: Thank you.

AGNEW: Thank you.

HAYES: That`s it for this special edition of "All In." Thank you so much for being here with us tonight. It`s amazing to be able to watch that speech and share it with you. The Rachel Maddow Show starts right now. Good evening, Rachel.

RACHEL MADDOW, HOST OF THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW: Good evening, Chris. That was amazing, and I have to say, looking back at last night, I need to commend you for kicking my butt in the ratings last night.

(LAUGHTER)

MADDOW: In the hope that you don`t make a habit of it. Congratulations, my friend (inaudible).

HAYES: Thank you, Rachel.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.END

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